Hey everyone. I'm building my own computer, and I know a lot about computers. (Computer Science Major in college.) I'm trying to pick a good processor out and I'm having issues trying to figure out which is better. I'm a gamer and will use this PC for gaming. I already have a computer and I'm looking to upgrade. I already have a 1 GB DDR5 ATI Radeon Graphics card, and everything else. All I need is a case, a processor, and a new motherboard.

I was looking at an Intel Core i5-4670 it has 6MB L3 Cache, 3.4GHz,
1200 MHz Graphics Core Speed, and it's quad core for $209, but then I saw an AMD CPU for cheaper. The AMD FX-4300 with four cores, 3.8GHz, and 8MB L3 Cache all for $114.

So, I wanted the AMD processor because it had a higher GHz and L3 Cache, but a lower price.

To be sure though I looked at a website where they compared the two and it said that the AMD card was not as fast?

What am I missing? What should I really be looking for? I'm on a budget and would like to keep the total cost under $450.

FX4300 is far, FAR worse for gaming. It's not a true quad core design, and it has much lower IPC factor, which makes it barely able to compete with i3, let alone i5. Hell, even the Phenoms II X4 (from 2009 IIRC) are on average faster than FX4300...

So, the decision in trivial - if you can afford i5, go for it. AMD doesn't have really anything that could compete with it. Personally I'd advise you to go for i5-4570 - I don't think that 4670 is worth the extra money.

IPC in case you didn't know the TLA is Instructions Per Clock. And the AMD chip would need to hit 4.5Ghz in order to match the stock speed of the Intel in real world situations.

Check your current memory is DDR3, and then check your graphics card isn't something like a 4350, 5450 or similar, as the on-board with the either chip will equal or exceed the power of a low end card like those I mentioned.